Astrocytes are known to play important roles in brain energy metabolism and the regulation of neuronal network activities. A single astrocyte has a highly elaborate and expansive morphology which enables it to interact with many thousands of neurons and synapses. Moreover, astrocytes are connected to adjacent astrocytes via gap junctions and evidence suggests that these astrocyte networks may mediate long range communications within and between brain regions. In this episode I talk with University of Montreal neuroscientist Cairan Murphy-Royal about the rapidly expanding knowledge concerning astrocyte functions in regulating brain functions and responses to environmental conditions with a focus on stress responses. Cairan's laboratory recently showed that astrocyte activity influences anxiety states and that selective manipulations of astrocyte activity can increase or decrease fear and anxiety. We also talk about how astrocytes may mediate chronic stress-induced memory impairment.

LINKS

Murphy-Royal laboratory:

https://www.murphyroyallab.org/

Amygdala astrocytes control anxiety states:

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(26)00163-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0896627326001637%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Male – female differences in astrocyte-mediated stress responses:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12246237/pdf/41467_2025_Article_61643.pdf

Early life stress, astrocyte dysfunction, and fear generalization:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11798576/pdf/elife-99988.pdf